Hunter Biden's legal woes drag on, overshadowing Joe's Reelection Campaign

The Department of Justice team under Special Prosecutor David Weiss will seek a grand jury indictment of Hunter Biden in his tax and firearms case.

Under the Speedy Trial Act, Weiss will seek an indictment before the 29 September deadline.

This means that far from being over, the long-running saga that saw a five-year investigation into Biden's personal conduct and business dealings may see the inside of a courtroom. In fact, Weiss said in August that the case will likely go to trial.

The continuing drama, which no doubt the President had hoped would have come to an end by now, is set to overshadow his reelection campaign. His anticipated opponent, Donald Trump, faces legal trouble of his own in the form of indictments over his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election result and his handling of classified documents.

Plea Deal Gone South

For a brief moment in July, Hunter Biden's whirlwind of legal and personal trouble seemed to be coming to an end with the agreement of a plea deal between the Department of Justice and Biden's legal team.

However, in an unexpected turn of events, Judge Maryellen Noreika of the US District of Delaware posed several concerns regarding the deal, seeming almost upset at times as she felt she was simply being asked to act as a "rubber stamp" for the deal.

In June, Biden was charged with two violations of failure to pay income tax and one violation of unlawful possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison on each of the tax charges and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the firearm charge.

However, the prosecutorial team noted in a press release that actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties, going on to say that it is up to a judge to determine any sentence after taking into account sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

The tax charges relate to non-payment of income tax in 2017 and 2018. According to Justice Department filings, Biden received taxable income in excess of $1.5 million in both years and failed to pay federal taxes owed in excess of $100,000 in each of those years.

The felony gun charge relates to illegal possession of a Colt Cobra .38 Special handgun whilst under the influence of narcotics, specifically crack cocaine. Biden has been in and out of rehab to deal with his drug addiction issues.

Under the terms of the now-defunct deal, Biden would have avoided prison time with prosecutors agreeing to recommend probation in exchange for him pleading guilty to two misdemeanour offences of failing to pay his taxes. The separate gun charge would have been dropped in two years had he honoured the terms of a pretrial diversion agreement, which essentially states that he must stay out of legal trouble to have the charge scrubbed.

The judge had several questions about the plea agreement, noting that some of the content had no legal precedent.

"These agreements are not straightforward and they contain some atypical provisions," Noreika said, including one that could theoretically protect Biden from other tax-related crimes.

In advance of the anticipated plea deal that fell apart, the White House issued a brief statement, saying: "The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment."

President Biden has remarked on his son's difficulties in the past, telling CBS's 60 Minutes: "I love my son, number one. He fought an addiction problem. He overcame it. He wrote about it."

"We expect a fair resolution of the sprawling, five-year investigation into Mr Biden that was based on the evidence and the law, not outside political pressure, and we'll do what is necessary on behalf of Mr Biden to achieve that," Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, had said on the occasion.

More of Hunter Biden's Personal Troubles Cast a Shadow over the Senior Biden

In another twist worthy of a soap opera plot, more of Hunter Biden's personal drama continues to add fuel to the fire and loom over the White House.

In 2018, Hunter Biden fathered a daughter with Lunden Roberts, an exotic dancer he met at a club in Washington D.C. Biden wrote in his memoir that he had no recollection of meeting Roberts, being in the throes of addiction at the time.

At first, Biden denied being the father, before Roberts sued for paternity and DNA testing proved her claim. Biden eventually agreed to pay $20,000 a month in child support costs to Roberts, as well as gifting some of his own paintings to the child. Biden has lately found a calling as a painter, with some pieces selling for $500,000. In exchange, Roberts agreed to drop her demand that the child's surname be changed to Biden.

Biden reopened the case last year, asking for a reduction in monthly payments commensurate with what he claimed was a fall in his earnings. A lower, undisclosed amount was agreed upon.

Questionable Business Dealings Amidst Criticism from the Right

Neither do the scandals stop there. Biden's business activities abroad have been heavily criticised by Republicans.

In particular, his dealings in Ukraine, whilst his father was the Vice President and the Obama administration's point man for US-Ukraine relations, have courted controversy.

In 2014, he joined the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, where he was paid as much as $1.2 million per year.

The United States was encouraging an anti-corruption drive in Ukraine at the time, with Biden calling for the removal of the country's top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.

Shokin was removed by parliament in 2016 amidst claims from critics that he only lost his job because he was investigating Burisma.

A former business partner of Hunter's also testified that Joe had been on speakerphone several times during Hunter's calls with various contacts.

House Republicans had criticised the now-defunct plea deal as a "sweetheart bargain" even as it was agreed by Weiss, who is a Trump nominee – but who also has a historical connection with the Bidens, working together with Hunter Biden in the past.

As Trump faces his own legal troubles, House Oversight Committee Chair and Kentucky Republican James Comer, criticised Attorney General Merrick Garland, accusing the Department of Justice of running a "two-tiered system of justice".

Meanwhile, after five long years, Hunter Biden's legal fate still hangs in the balance.